The Milwaukee Bucks have put a gradual begin behind them and are enjoying a few of their finest basketball of the season.
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They will face one other staff that’s enjoying higher of late once they go to the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night time.
The Bucks are beginning a six-game street journey after sweeping a four-game homestand. They’ve gained seven of eight and are a season-best seven video games above .500.
“We’re playing great team ball, we’re competing defensively, we’re playing at a good pace,” ahead Giannis Antetokounmpo mentioned. “There were maybe one or two times we weren’t ourselves the last couple of weeks, but overall we’ve been competing every game and getting better.
“Guys are enjoying nice and making photographs, enjoying the precise method, making the additional cross, serving to each other defensively. So I am completely satisfied the place we’re proper now. However we have got to maintain on bettering each single day. We have been enjoying good. However it’s not sufficient.”
Antetokounmpo had 34 points and 15 rebounds in a 123-109 home victory against the injury-depleted Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday. Damian Lillard scored 16 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter and became the 38th player in NBA history to score 22,000 points.
“I did not even give it some thought earlier than the sport,” Lillard said. “Like I all the time say, I am probably not good about stuff like that, after which when it occurs and I look again at it I am like, ‘Man, it is a fantastic accomplishment.'”
Lillard was a teammate of Pelicans guard CJ McCollum for 8 1/2 seasons in Portland, and McCollum is coming off a significant performance of his own. He scored 45 points, including 31 after halftime, six of which came in overtime of a 123-119 victory over the visiting Utah Jazz on Monday night.
“CJ was unimaginable,” New Orleans coach Willie Green said. “As soon as he acquired going I believed his teammates did a fantastic job of looking for him. We had been drawing stuff up for him and he executed time and again. With out that effort it might have been arduous for us to win that sport.”
Utah scored the first 14 points of the game and led by as many as 25 points before the Pelicans put together the largest comeback in franchise history. New Orleans trailed by 20 points at halftime, but allowed just 50 points the rest of the way.
“The coaches challenged us to be extra disciplined, be extra engaged, be extra aggressive and be extra assertive,” McCollum said of the halftime locker room. “We did not deliver it within the first half and it was apparent.”
The Pelicans have won a season-best four consecutive games and seven of their last 10.
“It is nearly perspective,” McCollum said of the team’s improvement, “preserve getting higher every day … and do not take these wins with no consideration as a result of it took us two months to get 5 wins.
“As quick as the tide turns, it can go up, it can go down. There are good days and bad days. There are losing streaks and winning streaks so you’ve got to ride the wave and keep your perspective in check.”
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